S&P 500 Earnings: Quarterly S&P 500 EPS Estimate Hits $100 Per Share

With just 2 weeks left in the Q2 ’26 reporting and about 4 weeks from the beginning of the Q3 ’26 earnings releases for the S&P 500, it’s remarkable the growth in the benchmark estimate, and it’s probably not sustainable. The Q2 EPS reports were heavily influenced by the Anthropic markup, with LSEG reporting the last few weeks that Anthropic added 15% to 2nd quarter ’26 EPS growth, which doesn’t include tariff refunds, etc. The expected S&P 500 EPS estimate by year-end ’26 (as of last weekend) is $363.71, vs. the actual EPS estimate as of the end of ’24 of $242.73, which means in just 18 months, the S&P 500 EPS estimate has grown 50%. The above spreadsheet table is from an internal S&P 500 EPS spreadsheet maintained since the end of the so-called “great financial crisis” in 2008. Note the heavily-bordered EPS estimates for Q2 ’26: those are the first quarterly, “$100 EPS estimates” ever for This article was written by Brian Gilmartin, CFA 11.38K Followers Follow Brian Gilmartin, is a portfolio manager at Trinity Asset Management, a firm he founded in May, 1995, catering to individual investors and institutions that werent getting the attention and service deserved, from larger firms. Brian started in the business as a fixed-income / credit analyst, with a Chicago broker-dealer, and then worked at Stein Roe & Farnham in Chicago, from 1992 - 1995, before striking out on his own and managing equity and balanced accounts for clients. Brian has a BSBA (Finance) from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, (1982) and an MBA (Finance) from Loyola University, Chicago, January, 1985. The CFA was awarded in 1994. Brian has been fortunate enough to write for the TheStreet.com from 2000 to 2012, and then the WallStreet AllStars from August 2011, to Spring, 2012. Brian also wrote for Minyanville.com, and has been quoted in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal.